Cadillac DeVille 1985 to 2005 including:1985-1992 Fleetwood, 1993 Sixty Special, All FWD Forum Discussion, Vibration from front end in Past Cadillac Vehicle Discussion; Just took the first half off a road trip from Reno to Denver in my 2005 Deville DTS. On the ...

Just took the first half off a road trip from Reno to Denver in my 2005 Deville DTS. On the way out Reno, about an hour into the trip I got a noticeable vibration in the steering wheel. I check the TPMS and all of the tires were at 38/39 pounds. I pulled over and used my hand held tire gauge to drop the pressure to 34. It help a lot. Has anyone else had this issue?

The second odd issue was when I pulled off the highway in Denver I hit some of the worse railroad tracks I have ever experienced in my life, and I hit them hard. I thought I had blown a tire put it turns out the car had actually died. Dash was off, engine was off. I pulled over, put it in park and it started up fine.. I took the car into Firestone and the front and right rear were way out of alingment. They aligned it and balanced the tires. Vibration is still there but I know they put more than 35psi in the tires. Could over inflation be the cause?

Also, I checked for codes and there were none. I am wondering if my hand flew up and hit the ignition when I hit the tracks.

38/39 PSI is WAY too high. Proper pressure, checked COLD, is listed on the drivers door.

Over inflation can amplify a vibration, but not cause one. The cause is an out of balance rotating part: damaged rim/tire, corrosion buildup between the rim/rotor/hub mating surfaces... A bad motor mount (usually the front mount) can also cause vibration..... Gone over hundreds of times here and in the Eldo/Seville forums.

FWIW, if the tracks are what threw the alignment off, one or more steering/suspension components are damaged. Rims and especially tires may be as well.

Firestone gave me the before and after on the alignment and it all back in spec. I drove it out to Blackhawk and it drove straight as an arrow, just the annoying vibration over 60ish. I will check the cold pressure in the morning. I wonder if a Road Force Balance would help. The tires have plenty of tread on them but I have only had the car 5 months or so. Could be there is a bad belt. Since lowering the air pressure seems to reduce the vibration I am inclined to think wheel/tire over motor mount. I did put it in neutral at highway speed and it didn't seem to make much difference.

I have to drive back to Reno this weekend. Will make sure the tires are at 30 PSI when I leave and see how she rides. Keep in mind the vibration showed up before I hit the tracks and Firestone looked everything over. I had told them I hit the tracks so they had a chance to try to find something wrong and do the repair. Not saying they may not have missed something, just thinking its probably more of a tire issue then a suspension one.

Anyone have any thoughts on why it may have died when I hit the tracks.

Re: Vibration from front end

I suggest balancing the tires. It's a cheap firs step to trying to figure out what the issue actually is. I know I had a vibration at about 65 - 70 mph and it went away at 80 mph that turned out to be a tire balance issue.

Thanks Ranger . I am getting the RFB done in the morning. After that a friend of mine and I are driving to Castle Rock so I should be able to get it up to 80mph on the trip. Will let everyone know how it goes.

Problem solved. The Road Force Balancer showed all four tires out of round and one with a nasty high spot. They put four new tires on her and she was smooth as, we'll, a Cadillac on my short freeway run.

Next project will be to replace the leaking strut I noticed today, but that can wait for a while.